Hafiz Naeem gives govt 10 days to abolish levy, threatens to resume Islamabad march in mid-November
ISLAMABAD
Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said on Tuesday that the government and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) had agreed to form a six-member committee to examine proposals for expanding the Prime Minister’s Fuel Relief Scheme and phasing out the petroleum levy in the next budget.
The minister said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and JI chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman had agreed to form the committee after discussions on proposals to provide relief amid rising fuel prices. “The government representatives will include Deputy PM Dar, Rana Sanaullah and myself,” Iqbal said.
Earlier, JI chief gave the government 10 days to abolish the petroleum levy and provide meaningful relief to the inflation-hit public, warning that his party would resume its long march towards Islamabad in mid-November if its demands were not met.
Rehman issued the ultimatum after meeting Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif at the Prime Minister’s House in Islamabad, where the JI delegation pressed the government to scrap the levy and address the rising cost of living. “The government has promised that relief will be provided. The question is not whether relief will be given, but how and when,” he said after the meeting. He said the prime minister had assured the party that technical committees would be given eight to 10 days to work out proposals for providing relief. He maintained that the talks had not ended in failure, as both sides had agreed on the need to ease the burden on the public.
Addressing a news conference in Islamabad alongside Prime Minister’s Adviser on Political Affairs Rana Sanaullah, Iqbal said the committee would comprise three representatives each from the government and JI.
The committee would examine ways to extend the relief scheme to more deserving people and explore how the petroleum levy could be abolished through a phased process in the next budget, Iqbal said.
He added that the government had explained its “challenges” to the JI delegation and heard the party’s proposals. Both sides, he said, shared the objective of providing relief to the public, although the government believed that measures should follow a durable and “sustainable” approach.
Iqbal said the government recognised the impact of rising fuel prices on ordinary people and that the prime minister was keen to protect vulnerable sections of society from the effects of the increase.
He added that the government would provide relief within its “fiscal limitations”. According to the latest figures he cited, 12.5 million people were benefiting from the fuel relief scheme.
